Slime Squisher
Posts: 405
Joined: Sunday, 27th January 2019, 13:50
Feature removal ?
1) It doesn't promote learning or growth
Hiding posts made by another taverner means their contribution to a thread is selectively ignored for the sake of personal bias. If a taverner marked as foe actually helps a discussion, introduces a good idea, or further develops an existing one - the user(s) who marked them will not learn what they would otherwise. Even with the possibility of unhiding posts like this, it promotes ignorance and stagnancy first, learning only by choice second. I dislike this for the simple reason that spending time here has helped me learn a lot about the gameplay and game design. English practice, too, but that's an added bonus.
2) It introduces needless additional steps
This is closely tied to the first point, because having to manually unhide posts to see what was added to a thread is one problem - making the exact same points as an ignored taverner leads to bloated threads where an idea or counterpoint is repeated multiple times without any need to do so. It's a lose-lose situation by design: you either post something that exists already and has been responded to, or you have get through extra steps to get the same content from the thread you'd get without the "Mark as foe" filter.
3) It encourages bad relationships between people
This one is very much a moot point on arrival, but I really want to make sure the personal implications are known. This is a public forum, it is open to all sorts of people from around the world, and GIFT is in full effect because internets. Having a tool to tune out others at any time you please is just another way to deny others basic respect. Not even bothering to know what someone else thinks or feels is not a good thing. Which leads well into the next one...
4) It is already functional through other means
Posts that are made in ill intent, whether they are troll posts, interpersonal attacks, rude language, or just generally obnoxious can be dealt with. They can be denied attention, for whichever reason. Posts can also be reported, and can be dealt with accordingly. Posts that are made in ignorance or have flawed logic, bad structure, or are otherwise lacking in substance can be corrected. They can be added to, or cut down to the parts that do make sense and taken up from there. We are all also free to edit our posts for any reason, including "whoops that was stupid, this is better". Finally, some things don't even need to be posted in a thread to begin with: PMs work just as well, and are as personal as can be.
5) Does anyone actually use this "feature"?
Self-explanatory. I have no idea how many people make use of this functionality, and if so why they do.
Thoughts?